Accountable the impact of racism

The book Accountable by Dasha Slater is based on a racist instagram account that targeted people of color in Albany High School seven years ago. This led to many conversations about racism in social media and how it affects communities. Systemic racism greatly contributes to interpersonal racism like at AHS and implicit bias refrained students and admin from not taking serious action for racists posts.

Systemic racism affects how students treat one another, especially people of color. In Albany HS many students of color felt targeted by the curriculum teachers used. At Albany HS, a black student had this to say ¨you complain about the fact that your World History class only spends a week covering the African continent. As a solution your teacher suggests that you, the only black kid, develop a lesson about Africa and teach it to the class” (pg 21). It shows how the teachers feel that people of color, black people should be teaching about their topic since they think it's not important as the other culture. They might think that black culture isn't as important as white culture and that's why they think it's okay to just teach it for a week and be over it and then spend the rest of the unit on white culture. Black students are not only treated differently in a classroom, but amongst their peers. A black student at AHS was told by a white student that they didn't know that they were as smart as they thought they would. “When you mention that you're in an AP class or did well on a test, people say things like, " I didn't know you were  smart” (pgs 21). People think Black people aren't as smart as they think. They have assumptions based on the color of their skin. Systemic Racism is something Albany High School allowed and it affected the students and how they treated one another. Overtime, this led to the racist instagram account.

Implicit bias shaped students and admin from not taking serious actions about the racist instagram account. Implicit bias is when you see or was part of something serious but didn't take actions to stop it or report it. Two students at AHS saw the account on one of their friends' instagram page but didn't tell the admin because they were too shocked to say anything and they were scared to. “As the second round of suspensions began winding down, Administrators found another problem sharing them in the face. Somehow the kids who followed the account and the kids who were impacted by it were going to have to go to school together” (pg 175). This quote is important because it shows that the admin at AHS had little knowledge of the problem and didnt think of any other solution. They could have separated the harmers from the victims, putting them in different classes. They were being biased by not having the right solution and consequences. The teachers had the same problem as well. They were so confused and had judgement for the students that followed the account and didn't notice it. “The teachers at Albany high school were still mostly in the dark about the role different students had played in the instagram account and they didn't really know what to make of the schools response” (289). This quote is important because the teachers seem to have little knowledge of the problem like the administrators, they didn't know what to do and that caused more anger among the students and especially with the victims. This is why implicit bias can cause more problems and can cause the system not to take serious actions with the problem of the racist instagram account.